Need some piracy advice....

[Zhukov]

You'd seriously report a friend for bloody copyright violation?

Wow.

That's... yeah... wow.

Oh hey, don't forget to report your girlfriend for that one time when her parking meter ran out. Then you can report your brother for public littering when the beer can missed the bin. Then you should cap it all off by turning yourself in for watching a movie clip on Youtube.

 

[Rooster Cogburn]

I don't think you're a jerk, bfqmetalhead. And I think you've raised a difficult question. I don't know what you should do, but if I were in your shoes, I wouldn't involve myself officially. The benefit to society seems negligible. Worry about your friend instead. If I were you, I would try to convince my friend, even if this is a very long term prospect and even if it never works. You don't have to stage an intervention or get up on a soapbox. Just being around you when he knows how you feel about piracy will influence his decision making. I would only think about involving the authorities if there were a more serious and direct threat to society or individuals. Perhaps selling pirated material would be such a threat.

 

[Rumpsteak]

Being torn between conscience and relations is no fun position to be in however I don't think setting a well paid legal team on the poor guy is the right way to go about it. If you feel you have to do something how about just bringing up that he has no right to an opinion any time he complains about something no matter how small. That or randomly delete his saves.

 

[him over there]

The thing is piracy as a whole is a massive problem, yet a single act is a less substantial offence. Sure what he did is wrong but he could end up paying thousands of dollars if you report him, that is if you aren't ignored entirely. Doing this won't stop piracy, it won't bring your friend to a moral epiphany, it won't even serve as a warning to other pirates. The world doesn't have time to handle the millions of acts of piracy in this world, you are essentially ruining your friend and only your friend over something wrong and illegal but pretty insubstantial. Tell your friend why it's wrong and if he doesn't care then, well he's a jerk.

 

[Esotera]

My suggestion is that you're going to massively regret this if he actually gets fined for this, and he's probably going to guess it was you. That's on the off-chance that anyone can gather
enough evidence to make a pay-up-or-else letter.

He doesn't sound like he's that important a friend to you if you're willing to rat him out for pirating a game that costs about £20, so do whatever.

 

[Savagezion]

Have you ever borrowed a game from a friend OP?

 

[Gamergeek25]

They way I see it is that bgqmetalhead has tried to be reasonable. He tried all methods that he believes would work, but rather not see his friend copyright infirngement on another companies hard work. and rooster brought up a good point. But the underlining question is this How can consumers stop others from pirating before we destroy their lifes with a several hundrede dollar fine and possibly years in prison.

 

[Total LOLige]

I don't think you should report your friend for piracy lots of people do it, probably a lot of your friends do it they just won't tell you possibly because you'd report them. I think it'd be your duty to report him if he was downloading child pornography.

 

[bfgmetalhead]

I don't think you're a jerk, bfqmetalhead. And I think you've raised a difficult question. I don't know what you should do, but if I were in your shoes, I wouldn't involve myself officially. The benefit to society seems negligible. Worry about your friend instead. If I were you, I would try to convince my friend, even if this is a very long term prospect and even if it never works. You don't have to stage an intervention or get up on a soapbox. Just being around you when he knows how you feel about piracy will influence his decision making. I would only think about involving the authorities if there were a more serious and direct threat to society or individuals. Perhaps selling pirated material would be such a threat.

This post really made me smile. You understand that I don't want to get him in trouble but don't want him to promote digital theft, I am not going to involve any authorties anymore anyway it's not worth it but I still need to make him understand. Thanks anyway.

 

[Rawne1980]

What a friend you are.

If I had a friend like you i'd slap the ever living snot out of them.

Yeah piracy is wrong and all that jazz but you don't shit on your friends.

 

[Gamergeek25]

Snip. quote]

This post really made me smile. You understand that I don't want to get him in trouble but don't want him to promote digital theft, I am not going to involve any authorties anymore anyway it's not worth it but I still need to make him understand. Thanks anyway.

Just do an intervention. then like some other poster said.

 

[Hazy992]

Ya know, I can understand distaste of his position, but you'd really do that to a friend of yours?

That was my thought as well. He can't be a very good friend if you'd be willing to do that to him.

I'd say. I mean I'd feel bad that a friend did something wrong and I let him get away with it, but if it's a friend then even if they make mistakes I'd like for them to not suffer for it.

Yeah same. I wouldn't fuck up my friendship over something like this.

If someone did this to me I would punch him in the face, seriously. Going behind someones back like that is not cool, specially when you are friends.

No it's not. That's a really shitty thing to do to a friend IMO. IDC if you're not cool with piracy that's just really fucking dickish[footnote]BTW let me just make it clear that I'm not condoning piracy[/footnote]

 

[bfgmetalhead]

What a friend you are.

If I had a friend like you i'd slap the ever living snot out of them.

If I had a friend like you....well I would'nt I dont make friends with people who insult others for asking for advice on a difficult siuation.

 

[Rawne1980]

If I had a friend like you....well I would'nt I dont make friends with people who insult others for asking for advice on a difficult siuation.

I honestly mean nothing against you personally.

I don't think anyone wants to be friends with someone that shits on them.

Friends are friends no matter what they do, you don't go screwing them over just to make a point.

It may be my old fashioned values but my friends trust me and I trust them. I would never consider anything like you proposed.

It's not a difficult situation, your friend screwed up but you don't ever ..... EVER ..... shit on a friend. That isn't what a friend does.

 

[Gamergeek25]

I am unsure if bfgmetalhead is even going to alert the legal team anymore.

 

[bfgmetalhead]

If I had a friend like you....well I would'nt I dont make friends with people who insult others for asking for advice on a difficult siuation.

I honestly mean nothing against you personally.

I don't think anyone wants to be friends with someone that shits on them.

Friends are friends no matter what they do, you don't go screwing them over just to make a point.

It may be my old fashioned values but my friends trust me and I trust them. I would never consider anything like you proposed.

It's not a difficult situation, your friend screwed up but you don't ever ..... EVER ..... shit on a friend. That isn't what a friend does.

I wish that was true, many of my friends have `shit on me' in the past and I forgave them. I very rarely oppose my friends at all, but somthing about this just really got under my skin.

 

[CAPTCHA]

It's been said but this is kind of a dick move on your part. I'd be pissed if my friend pulled something like this on me. Also file sharing isn't illegal where I come from. Obviously you can't care very much about your friendship, in which case why even bother. Is this some sort of spite thing?

your right but he is still using content that Bethesda created without paying for it. Yes it's not the end of the world but I would'nt like it if I made somthing and then someone just took it and did'nt care. I know another guy who pirates games from Biowear but he hates EA so he sends the price of the game to biowear as a donation after he pirates it. This I am more happy with. Thats my general opinion kk .

You moral compass doesn't seem very consistent. So it's about your mate making the finacial commitment, not about the creators getting their due?

 

[distortedreality]

OP, I have to ask you: have you ever watched a youtube video that wasn't uploaded by the copyright owner? Ever listened to a song on youtube that wasn't part of an official channel? Ever downloaded a song, movie, or TV show? Ever used an image you didn't have explicit permission to use(hint: if you didn't personally make your avatar, you've definitely done that one)? Then you need to stop complaining about your friend, because you are literally just as much of a lawbreaker as he is. Modern copyright law is fundamentally broken. There's no need to ever get high and mighty about it like this.

Very much this.

I very much think OP is over reacting in a really bad way.

 

[Rawne1980]

I wish that was true, many of my friends have `shit on me' in the past and I forgave them. I very rarely oppose my friends at all, but somthing about this just really got under my skin.

I guess i've been lucky with my friends. 5 of us, quite literally, grew up together. We were all born within a few months of each other and lived on the same street (there was a power cut for a week 9 months earlier, guess what our parents did to entertain themselves). We've been friends for close to 30 years, well we're between 31 and 32 now but obviously we didn't socialise much from the cot.

We've all done and known someone who's done something stupid but with friends we let it slide. Hell, my friends have lied for me and i've lied for them.

I'm just struggling to come to terms with the fact you were willing to do that to a friend.

Normally I take nothing seriously, as some people here know, I rarely make a serious comment but that threw me.

If your friends have shit on you in the past then i'm guessing they aren't very good ones.

 

[bfgmetalhead]

I wish that was true, many of my friends have `shit on me' in the past and I forgave them. I very rarely oppose my friends at all, but somthing about this just really got under my skin.

I guess i've been lucky with my friends. 5 of us, quite literally, grew up together. We were all born within a few months of each other and lived on the same street (there was a power cut for a week 9 months earlier, guess what our parents did to entertain themselves). We've been friends for close to 30 years, well we're between 31 and 32 now but obviously we didn't socialise much from the cot.

We've all done and known someone who's done something stupid but with friends we let it slide. Hell, my friends have lied for me and i've lied for them.

I'm just struggling to come to terms with the fact you were willing to do that to a friend.

Normally I take nothing seriously, as some people here know, I rarely make a serious comment but that threw me.

If your friends have shit on you in the past then i'm guessing they aren't very good ones.

I am just upset that people think I enjoy the thought, I really don't but I did'nt think the reaction would be so... Nasty, I used to think the Escapist was a place were fellow posters would understand your point of view. I guess not, thanks for the feedback anyway.